Other Participants Endorsing this JSR

Most partners that participated in the definitions of Servlet 2.2 and
JSP 1.1 specifications have already expressed interest in
participating in the expert group for Servlet 2.3 and JSP 1.2.
Partners that are endorsing this JSR include:

Frank Biederich
Adobe

Simeon Simeonov
Allaire

Joe Chung
ATG

Dave Brown
BEA

Bob Bickel
Bluestone Software

Scott Ferguson
Caucho

Assaf Arkin
Exoffice

Craig R. McClanahan
ASF & Jakarta

Elias Bayeh
IBM

Hans Bergsten
Gefion Software

Ethan Henry
KL Group

Jason Hunter
Author of "Java Servlet Programming"

Amit Kishnani
Macromedia

Stefano Mazzocchi
ASF & Cocoon

Todd Giles
Net Objects

Bjorn Carlson
Netscape

Vince Bonfanti
New Atlanta

Julie Basu &Hal Hildebrand
Oracle Corp.

Tim Lopez
Visual Cafe Group (WB Information Systems)

Magnus Stenman
Orion App Server

Jon Stevens
ASF, Turbine &Clear Ink Corp.

Arny Epstein
SilverStream

Larry Cable
Sun Microsystems

Section 2: Request

This JSR requests the creation of the next versions of the Java Servlet
and JavaServer Pages specifications. The version numbers
tentatively assigned are Servlet 2.3 and JSP 1.2. These two
specifications will be part of the Java 2 Enterprise Edition platform.

Since the JavaServer Pages specifications are tightly defined on top
of the Java Servlet specifications, we plan to define both
specifications in parallel to eliminate discrepancies and confusion,
and to reduce development cost. We plan to structure the
documentation so that the Java Servlet specification can be used
independently of the JavaServer Pages specification,

2.1 Target Java platform

The Servlet 2.2 and JSP 1.1 specifications are part of the Java 2
Enterprise Edition, version 1.2 (J2EE 1.2) platform.
We expect that this proposed specifications will be part of the next
release of the J2EE Platform.
As with the current versions of the specification,
we expect the new versions to be usable on the J2SE platform.

2.2 Need of the Java Community that this work addresses

The new Servlet and JSP specifications will add some functionality
that was already known to be missing from the current specifications
and that was not incorporated due to time constraints or because
additional research was needed before determining the correct approach.

In addition, the new Servlet and JSP specifications will incorporate
new functionality requested by our parterns and the public,
reflecting, in some cases, their quickly evolving needs.

The requirement areas we intend to address include, but are not limited to,
the following:

Better support for localization of applications

Proper support for inclusion of JSP pages without forcing flushing of buffers

Support for application events

Improved debugging and other tool support, taking advantage of JSR-45

Improved XML support

Improved tag library support

Improved JSP authoring support

Better support for composition of components

Enabling of WebDAV and WAP requests

In some cases the same solution may address multiple requirements.
Also, in some cases, the best response to the requirement may be outside
of the specification.

2.3 Explanation of why the need isn't met by existing specifications

As discussed above, these areas are largely unspecified in Servlet 2.2
and JSP 1.1. Consequently, Web Application authors, server vendors and
tool vendors must either ignore these areas or offer support using
vendor-specific architectures.

2.4 Specification to be developed and how it addresses the need

We request the development of a new version of the Servlet specification
and a companion new version of the JavaServer Pages specification.

2.5 Detailed description of the underlying technology or technologies

A detailed description of Servlet 2.2 and JSP 1.1 functionality can
be found in the respective specification documents, which can be downloaded
from the sites at http://java.sun.com/product/servlet/download.html and
http://java.sun.com/product/jsp/download.html.

2.6 Proposed package name for API Specification

We expect to use the existing packages used by the Servlet 2.2
and JSP 1.1 specifications: javax.servlet, javax.servlet.jsp,
and javax.servlet.jsp.tagext.

2.7 Security implications

Security mechanisms must be compatible with the security facilities of J2SE 1.3.

2.8 Internationalization implications

Improved internationalization and locatization capabilities for JSP and
Servlets is one of the key goals of this JSR, as noted above.

2.9 Localization implications

See 2.8.

2.10 Risk assessment (impact of work on target platform, impact if work
not carried out, difficulties in carrying out RI and/or CTS)

In the absence of these new specifications,
it is highly likely that Web containers
providers will develop container-specific mechanisms to
support the facilities listed in section 2.2 of this document. If this
occurs it will limit the portability of Servlet and JSP applications and tools.

An analysis of partner needs must be done to determine whether it is possible
to target the new specifications exclusively to the Java 2 platform,
or if the earlier versions of the specification still need to be considered.

2.11 Existing specifications that might be rendered obsolete or
deprecated by this work

A primary goal is backward compatibility.
All applications that use the Servlet 2.2 and JSP 1.2 specifications
must be compatible with Servlet 2.3 and JSP 1.2 specifications.

2.12 Existing specifications that might need revisions as a result of
this work

3.2 Explanation of how these items might be used as a starting point for
the work

These Servlet 2.3 and JSP 1.2 specifications will be based on the
current Servlet 2.2 and JSP 1.1 specifications. The Application
Programming Model work will be used to ground the new designs.
The J2EE documents provide context for the use of
Servlets and JSP within the J2EE platform.

We expect to take advantage of the experience gained from a number of
projects, including several that are represented in the endorsement list.

JSR-052, "A Standard Tag Library for JavaServer Pages" requests the
creation of a standard JSP tag library; that specification effort will have
a symbiotic relationship with this one. Similarly, we expect to take
advantage of JSR-045 "Debugging Support for Other Languages" to
provide improved debugging support for JSP. Finally, we expect to
start getting some feedback from and input into JSR-039, "Java Servlet
and JavaServer Pages Performance".